Alate questions

[SanctumPrime]

So my colony of carpenters has produced lots of alates and I have some questions.

All the alates appear to be males based on their size. Is that normal? I lucked into a wild colony so I don't know how old it is. Judging by its size I figure it's in its second or possibly third year. I don't know if young colonies produce males and queen alates come later or if early queens are smaller?

Another odd thing I've found that makes me have these questions is that one of the alates that I assumed was male has had it's wings removed and is just wondering about the colony. I had heard that if queens don't get a chance to fly that they might break off their wings and assume worker duties. Is that true? If it is, can males do the same? I haven't heard of that if they can.

Any insight into what I'm observing would be great!

[SYUTEO]

AntsCanada's newest carpenter ant colony which is small already produced males, this happens with some colonies and most likely produced when a queen lays an infertile egg or developed from a trophic egg (trophic eggs are eggs laid by the workers (only possible with some species) which are infertile and usually end up as food for the colony.

Yes, queen alates that remove their wings in the colony will eventually act as workers or sometimes be killed. I don't that will happen with male alates because male ants have tiny mandibles (and some species don't even have mandibles) which are not suitable for carrying objects.

[AntsLuxembourg]

As SYUTEO mentioned, even young colonies (under a year) can produce alates. However the males usually don't live for very long. First because they starve due to not having a mouth (only some species) and second because their only purpose is to reproduce and give the queens the ****/semen to lay fertile eggs.

Males don't usually work as far as I know. I also would assume that some queens break of their wings because they either think that they are fertile or that the wings just break off sometimes. And just to clarify, this last thing with the wings is only my guessing. Not a fact but my pure opinion and I am glad if at some point I would learn if I'm right or not.